About five years ago, as a bookseller, I wrote an open letter to publishers. I did this because Jamie said that PNBA would give me $50 and that I could write about anything I wanted. Shortly after writing the piece, I took a job with a library, where I still work today. I thought the time might be right to go back and revisit this letter and make some adjustments, additions, and subtractions from an updated perspective. This time, I wasn't even promised any money!

Dear Publishers:

Hi. I work in a bookstore library. Have you ever worked in a bookstore libary? Sometimes, I really doubt that you have. Here are a few things you need to know.

There is no "next DaVinci Code Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". There never will be. Please stop putting this in your catalogs and on your books. Ditto Harry Potter Hunger Games.

Booksellers Librarians hate love shrink wrap--Especially booksellers except librarians who chew their nails. Any book you feel the need to shrink wrap usually retails in the neighborhood of $40-$100, and that thin bit of plastic ensures that the book looks brand-spankin' new before we cover the book with our own plastic. Please, NOBODY buys a book that expensive without getting to see the good bits inside. And if the good bits happen to be naughty bits, the only way that book won't be returned as severely shelf worn is if you reinforce the binding with bolts, and go with sheet metal instead of cloth.Beautiful, large, full-color books really take a beating when they are repeatedly checked-out, dropped in a return bin, and re-shelved. 

Speaking of packaging, stop already with the "creative bindings." Just because there is no writing on the spine (or on the dreaded plastic coil thingy we all thought was cool when we were in, say, 2nd grade...) doesn't mean we're going to face out your book. Really, we won't, on general principal. Putting a protective sleeve of plastic on a dust cover that only goes halfway up the book is hard enough, but when you give it multiple layers, folds, and other origami-like dimensions, we are positively stumped (I'm talking to you McSweeney's... cough... Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends... cough...) And those plastic coil thingies?Those break before the first patron touches the book and make it IMPOSSIBLE for us to place a spine label. 

 
Please, for the love of all that is holy, sacred, named Mike, or otherwise, NO MORE MOVIE COVERS. With the possible exception of To Kill a Mockingbird, the book is ALWAYS better than the film. You have the premium product! Keep it that way. More often than not, those coming into our stores libraries--even while the movie is still in the theaters--prefer the original cover. It's true. Just ask anyone...     

And while we're on covers, please check out what your competitors are doing before you select that 'perfect' stock photo.  When books like these release a year or so apart, we notice:

Likewise, those of us who have been around books for most of our lives KNOW you check out your competitors because we understand EXACTLY what you are doing when a new book from a thriller writer comes out with this cover:

Just because we've never actually READ a Nicholas Sparks book doesn't mean we don't know one when we see it!

None of us are fooled by the phrase "paperback original." We all read that as, "See, we paid this author a pretty good amount of money in the form of an advance, and the book wasn't very good, so we knew we'd never recoup that cash by throwing more of it into a hard cover edition. We're hoping that enough people pick this book up on their way to the departure gate to at least get ourselves out of the red."

I see I'm at the end of my allotted word count. In a few months, perhaps I'll continue this letter I might even get around to writing about author pictures, including but not limited to the cars, dogs, and leather jackets that they inevitably contain. In the meantime, please go to a bookstore library, shadow a few customers patrons or employees (not too closely, that's called stalking), read a bit, and then buy check out a book. Hell, buy check out two.

Colin Rea, formerly the buyer at the University of Oregon Duck Store, is now Director of the Fern Ridge Public Library, just west of Eugene. He is the coordinator for PNBA's Michael Pritiken Rural Library Project, and he recently irked Garth Stein. 

--from the Paz & Associates Reaching Prospective Booksellers press release